The present invention relates to data processing, and more particularly to data file search by example for organizing related data files.
A problem related to organizing related data files is found in the area of time domain reflectometry, and specifically in the area of optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR). Optical cable test evaluation can be a tedious process. It often involves manual evaluation of each cable test looking at each splice location. Newer fiber optic systems use cable bundles having hundreds of fibers. Longer links mean many more splices in each fiber section. Cable tests are run at multiple wavelengths and from alternate ends. This results in hundreds of tests containing thousands of measurements needing to be evaluated and cross-correlated for each link. As an example to see wavelength-dependent optical effects in a 124 fiber cable, the cable is tested at two wavelengths, either 1310 nm/1550 nm or 1550 nm/1625 nm. To get the most accurate measurements the cable is tested from both ends. For installation testing each fiber is tested with an OTDR and a loss test set. 124 fibers×2 wavelengths×2 ends=496 OTDR tests plus 2 loss test set test files, one from each end where each test file has multiple tests. This is 498 separate tests! If the fiber uses 3 km sections between each splice, there are 24 events (splices and connectors) in each OTDR test file and 496 power meter measurements for a 75 km fiber cable. This is 496 (OTDR)×24 (events)+496 (loss test set)=2480 separate measurements to evaluate! This problem becomes worse for longer links (more events) and higher fiber counts. This task is done at installation and at any time the system is upgraded or reconfigured.
Evaluating literally thousands of optical cable measurements becomes a bottleneck in trying to install and upgrade fiber systems to handle the huge increase in bandwidth needed for today's network operations. Fiber report software has been used to generate test reports for a few years. However most software packages lack a way to correlate different tests for the same fiber, and at the same time allow detailed analysis of problem measurements. Manually identifying hundreds of files and the relationship between different files is time consuming and tedious.
What is desired is report software for integrating the functions of report generation, evaluation and analysis of large numbers of related data files, such as those representing large numbers of fiber optic cable tests.